Summary: It is time for the Church to arise in the mist of the dark world of sin and shine for the glory of Christ.

Intro: I believe that every church ought to have a vision and mission of what they feel that God would have them to do in reaching out to their area with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The challenge I have for you and I as a Church is that which the Lord began to speak through the prophet Isaiah. There is no time, like the time we are in to strive and push with all that we have to see the Glory of God in our midst in such a way that people can’t help but see the power and presence of God flowing from this place. My hearts desire is to see God’s presence is a greater way than ever before. I believe it is in the Year of 2004.

Illustration: The job of the church is not to impact the church, but to impact the world. It’s like a huddle in a football game. 67,000 people don’t pay $25.00 a ticket to watch the Titans huddle. What if you went to a Titans game and for 2 ½ hours you watched 11 men stand in a circle and talk? That’s not what you pay for!! 67,000 people pay $25 a ticket to see what difference the huddle makes. What they want to know is, having called the play in secret, does it work in public? The challenge for the church is not what we do when we call our Sunday morning huddle, but what we do when we break our huddle and head to our Sunday morning assignment. When Satan lines up against us, what difference does it make that we are Christians?...

Illustration: A family from a remote area was making their first visit to a big city. They checked in to a grand hotel and stood in amazement at the impressive sight. Leaving the reception desk they came to the elevator entrance. They’d never seen an elevator before, and just stared at it, unable to figure out what it was for. An old lady hobbled towards the elevator and went inside. The door closed. About a minute later, the door opened and out came a stunningly good-looking young woman. Dad couldn’t stop staring. Without turning his head he patted his son’s arm and said, "Go get your mother, son."

We find two direct commands here. The first one is: Arise! Means to get up from where you are! Sometimes, maybe today there might be people here who need to hear this.You might be feeling down and out – God says Arise! Listen. Winners are those people who stand up one more time after being struck down. Winning doesn’t mean you never fail, it rather means you never quit!

The second command is: Shine! The question is; How can one shine?

I mean people, sometimes, say that my head shines, but that is only because I haven’t got a lot of hair left. The reflection of God’s presence should glow through each of us in a way, like Moses, people can’t help but see the presence of God in a way that they say, they have been with God.

Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”

I. GET UP.

A. Isaiah here uses the term arise which means to get up from the place where you are and prepare to do something. To put it bluntly, we are, as a Body, told to "get up, get moving, march forward".The command is to "get up!" We have lingered in the darkness too long. Christ the Light of the world, God’s glory in the flesh is risen that you and I might arise! The imperative to arise calls for faith and obedience.